Tour Starts to Take Shape

Well, the Maple Blues Awards have come and gone. What a busy night! All kinds of people I didn't get a chance to talk to! However, many more I DID get to hang out with— so it was a blast! My good pal Big Dave McLean took the trophy for Blues With a Feeling. That's the lifetime achievement award. I was really pleased to see him get it. Thanks everybody for nominating him and for the votes of support. It's always a hard category to decide, so I like to think that our Big Road Blues Tour made a difference... it was acknowledged a couple of times from the podium, too, so that was nice.

But moving right along on the subject of Tours... THIS tour, the National Steel Blues Tour did very well at the Maples in that we are now about thirty percent sold or reserved. This week and next I'll start nailing it down properly. Michael and I got together for coffee at Toronto's High Park, and my son Alasdair shot a couple of pics to get us up and running. Here's what we looked like a couple of days ago...

We've been contacted by presenters in pretty much every Canadian region, so things are going pretty nicely. At the moment I'd have to say that the National Steel Tour is shaping up to be at least as big or bigger than last year's Big Road Blues Tour. I like to set the bar high! One thing's for sure, it's gonna be a good one. I'm very pleased to have Michael Pickett as my tour partner. Hold on to your hats!